The personal feedback I've gotten for the story has been largely positive and a lot of people have asked me what they can do. One woman who is from the suburbs of Chicago asked me what she could do to help. This was my response. Hopefully it'll help her and others.

Thank you for your kind words and thoughts. To tell you the truth I'm not sure what you can do. I'm not sure what I can do either. These problems are deep societal woes that are multilayered and multidimensional. It's really hard to say what anyone can do but I think the best strategy I've found at this point is to be an advocate on a micro-level. Wherever you are strive to not only enlighten those people but to also empower them. Especially young people, it's so important that they receive positive enforcement when they do positive things. I think what you can do is use your talents, whatever they may be, to affect your community and communities in need in a positive way. A way that errs on the side of empowerment and not pity. What that means for you is up to you but I think that's all I try to do and I think that's a good place for anyone to start. Thanks.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Today an article was written in the Chicago Tribune about a poem I performed for Brave New Voice Poetry Slam in 2008. The piece is about youth violence in Chicago. Check out the article and poem if you get a chance.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

I'm really feeling this song/video. It's by a cat named George Watsky and featuring a singer named Passion. I met George at Brave New Voices Poetry Slam 2008. He's a pretty tight poet and he's coming out with an album titled "Watsky". Not sure if the album is gonna be totally hip-hop or what the angle is but from the sounds of this song I'm definitely looking to hear more. He's originally from The Bay Area but now he's going to school at Emerson in Boston. He sounds like a more intelligent Asher Roth (no shots). They're voices are kinda similar (and they look alike, white, skinny, etc.) but I def prefer Watsky's style.

He's been on Def Poetry, won national poetry slams, blah blah blah. I'm glad to see him doing his thing. Props.

Friday, October 9, 2009

I’m a Democrat. This isn’t that surprising I guess. But aside from generally being a Democrat I am also someone who thinks Barack Obama is THAT dude. I think he’s articulate (in a non-“he speaks so well” house negro way), intelligent, etc. Everybody knows this spiel by now but my point is I generally ride for the big homie O but today was pretty surprising even by his standards.

…He won the Nobel Peace Prize…

…

…

…

not sure what I’m gonna say yet…

…

…

ok…

…

…got it.

On one level I definitely understand the selection and approve of it. For his campaign he had to overcome one of the world’s sickest and most pervasive racialized societies to triumph and in the process he brought people together in unprecedented ways. This is true and it was an amazing time to be young, black, (and from Chicago) but I challenge you to look a little deeper. Without taking anything away from him or the moment in history, it was by no means a kumbaya moment of profound racial conciliation or whatever. It was political. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing (he is a politician after all), but that’s what it was. Look at the facts:

1. After 8 years of a terribly unpopular president, the Democrats would’ve had to be completely inept to not win.

2. Obama ran the greatest national campaign ever. He utilized a potent mix of grassroots and major player support that raised money and awareness previously unseen.

3. He still didn’t win by THAT much. (Like 8.5 million, not a whole lot, not the biggest victory ever.)

4. McCain ran a bad campaign. I actually like McCain as far as Republicans go but he let his handlers get the best of him and he lost control of his own direction.

5. Sarah Palin (smh)

So don’t let the warm fuzziness fool you, we ARE NOT in a post-racial society (whatever that means). What we are in is a society that has a really good politician at its helm. A really good politician who has prospered because of his own merit and the failings of his opponents and despite the reality of his own blackness (Patton’s Army and Kansas aside, ONE DROP RULE, whitefolks made it and they have to live with it. HE’S OURS HAHAHA!).

Obama is still that dude and he has the potential to do a lot of good. The world opinion is still in his favor and it is my hope he can parlay that respect and popularity into making different parties come to the table and resolve their beefs. With that said, he doesn’t need a Nobel Peace Prize. Too early. Not even close.

Barack Obama was the sitting US Senator when I was in high school. Years that saw skyrocketing homicide rates for the public school system in Chicago. His Sec. of Education was running that school system. They were complicit in the murder of my peers. So was I. The blood is on all of our hands. The things that lead up to murders like that of Derrion Albert, Chris Pineda, and so many more are failures. Failures of community, family, political systems, economic systems, and school systems lead children to a place where they have no other outlet or resource (or feel like they don’t) for their rage. When that happens they kill each other.

I love Barack Obama. Every time I think of him I’m proud on so many levels (American, Chicagoan, African, etc.). I cannot, however, applaud the victory for someone who sat in the face (and continues to do so) of mass murder and was silent.

Hopefully now you know a lil’ something more…

Nate

PS.
Someone who still probably isn't qualified to win the Nobel Peace Prize but who is a lot closer in my mind is Kevin Coval. He does a lot of great community work in Chicago and Louder Than a Bomb Poetry Slam provides youth with a safe space to express every year. It's an amazing program and KC is a beast.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

No not like that... well...not TOTALLY. We have our good time but that's not the point of this post. I am a member of an organization that is a part of the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC). The NPHC are the 9 historically Black international Greek letter organizations. (LEARN MORE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Pan-Hellenic_Council)

That more like it... not really but close enough. So for many people when they think of NPHC organizations they think of stepping, branding, and hazing and such...

While those things may or may not be a part of OUR version of Greek Life (I plead the FIF!) there are many great things that come from these organizations. I'll spare you the Greek informational list of National initiatives and famous alumni and all that but here's some things about it that I think are a fewparticularly good and progressive programs.

One of my organization's national philanthropic programs is St. Jude Children's Hospital. My organization (Kappa Alpha Psi, by the way) partners with them to help them raise money to keep their doors open. St. Jude, located Memphis, TN (M10-a-Key!), does cutting edge research and care focusing on children's cancer and leukemia. This year my chapter at Vanderbilt University is working hard to raise money for St. Jude in all our endeavors. This is a really worthwhile cause and St. Jude is a great institution that my Ace (funny name for the shortest guy in your greek intake class) has worked with in the past and that we are all trying to help with now.

This brings me to my final point. This Sunday, a sorority on my campus, Sigma Gamma Rho is having a great philanthropic/educational event. Their program, FΣΣD The Hungry, is utilizing a great website that addresses the problem of world hunger in a breakthrough way. The website, http://freerice.com/index.php, basically asks users to play a free word game and for each question correct 10 grains of rice are donated to hungry people worldwide. The program is run through the UN World Food Programme and Harvard University and it's a super fresh look. If you are in the Nashville area or will be this Sunday I implore you to hit up this event and help make it a success (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=166043679877&ref=nf). If not you can still go to the website and help this very worthy cause. It's always good to see Greeks doing good. The founders would be proud.

The Marshall Plan (in the historical sense) was a nifty little (little as in like 13 billion in late 1940s cake) program that worked to rehabilitate the countries of Western Europe (and Turkey) in the aftermath of World War II. Basically what it did was pour American resources into those countries in hopes to stop the spread of communism throughout Europe.

(This is a quick and very dirty version of the history but I invite you to read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan. I’m a wiki-freak but it’s great place to start finding information about anything you don’t know much about. And I know it’s not always reliable, but do you think these whitefolks book are either?! I mean, really?)

So I, Nate Marshall, don’t got no change to throw into the vending machine of the world with hopes of extracting results (or a snack), but I have this blog. I don’t care about the spread of communism but I am worried about a word of the same root, community. I am concerned with the welfare and rehabilitation of the communities that I inhabit and am a part of in this world. The West Pullman/Roseland Area of Chicago (Home to the Derrion Albert murder), Those communities are the Far South Side of Chicago, the South Side of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Middle Tennessee, Tennessee, America, Black America, Young Black America, Young Black Male America, and whatever else applies.

Through this blog I’m gonna provide links, information, and insights that I think can be helpful to the healing of any and all of these communities. I feel pressed to do something and however small this is perhaps it can be a start to something greater. There will be music, politics, commentary, art, maybe some fashion, wikipedia links, and plenty of other things so come through for the ride folks. It might be an interesting one, and if not I tried.

Number Runnin'

Where Ya At?

About Me

Nate Marshall is the star of the award winning full-length documentary “Louder Than A Bomb” and has been featured on HBO’s “Brave New Voices. He is from the South Side of Chicago and currently is a junior at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN where he studies English and African American Studies. His work has appeared in The Spoken Word Revolution: Redux, The Vanderbilt Review, on Chicago Public
Radio and in many other publications. He was a 2010 finalist for the Guild Complex’s
Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Award. He is also a rapper who has released two
albums with the group Daily Lyrical Product and recently released his first solo EP,
“The Langston Huge Project.” "Unconditional Like" is his second chapbook of poetry.